Phantom Regret

By: Jim Carrey 

Accepting the past

Sometimes I wish life was written in pencil so we could erase it and write it all over again

~Thisuri Wanniarchchi

sit back and unpack
You may be here awhile
Now that all future plans have been postponed
And it's time to look back on the things you thought you owned
Do you remember them well?
Were you crazy or just stoned?
And how many grudges did you take to your grave?
When you weren't liked or followed, how did you behave?
Was it often a dissonant chord you were strumming?
Were you ever in tune with the song life was humming?
If pain's living on when your body's long gone
And your phantom regret hasn't let it go yet
You may not have died in the way that you must
All specters are haunted by their own lack of trust
When you're all out of time, there's nothing but space
No hunting, no gathering
No nations, no race
And Heaven is closer than those tears on your face
When the purple rain falls
We're all bathed in its grace
Heaven's for those who let go of regret
And you have to wait here when you're not all there yet
And if your broken heart's heavy when you step on the scale
You'll be lighter than air when they pull back the veil
Consider the flowers, they don't try to look right
They just open their petals and turn to the light
Are you listening real close?
Heaven's not that, it's this
It's the depth of this moment
You don't reach for bliss
God knows life is chaos
But He made one thing true
You gotta unwind your mind
Train your soul to align
And dance 'til you find that divine boogaloo
In other words
You gotta be Heaven to see Heaven
May peace be with you

Poem Analysis:

Accepting Regret

Accepting your actions will allow you to move on. Letting go of regret makes your life easier. Phantom Regret by Jim Carrey has a theme of letting go of regret is talked about throughout the entire poem. This piece of literature uses questions to make you think about yourself and regret. After the first few lines the poem takes a different direction that asks the reader questions. These questions are to make you self reflect about your life. It makes connection with death and regret and talks about how there will be a pain if you don’t let go of regret before death.

If pain's living on when your body's long gone

And your phantom regret hasn't let it go yet

You may not have died in the way that you must

This quote talks about you need to let go of regret before death otherwise you will suffer pain. If you accept your actions then it will allow you to live a more peaceful life. This whole poem has a very obviously main theme of regret that makes you question all possible regrets that you may want to accept before you face your fate. Taking responsibility of regret especially during these dark times will allow more peace within.

My 2022 WWFenn Experience

I knew I wanted to do this poem when I heard it for the first time two weeks ago. Jim Carrey is a comedian so I expected it to be funny however it is a very Serious poem that talks about a lot. I chose to do this poem because I though it was a very interesting poem and it made me think differently in a way I don’t normally think about. This poem is about your phantom regret. The poem is supposed to be a self reflection that looks back at the experiences one has had in their body. The soul is you and the body is the thing you control and this poem wants you to remember all the things you did and remember that one thing you regretted doing. The poem wants you to think about the regret and take responsibility for it in order to move on. It talks about realizing the truth and moving on instead of  punishing for the past. At the end it talks a little bit more about heavens and moving on to get there but the main focus of the poem is to tell the listener/reader that they need not move on and let go of regret before they die on their deathbed. After Performance: I performed first overall and was very nervous. I was very nervous because I had way less time to prepare compared to last year which took 5 times the effort to memorize and perform the poem. Last year I had a poem that I did not connect with that well, so when I heard we were doing WWFenn I found the perfect poem that connected with me. This poem is like a half slam poem because it has a big impact right away; however, this poem has a long term affect on the reader that makes them think about the deeper meaning of the poem. I don't think this piece is even close to as good as some other pieces and I think there are other people that deserve going to the next round more if they can become a little louder with their pieces.